1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to telecommunications, and more particularly to a method for establishing cost effective local calls.
2. Related Art
Although competition has brought many advances and new telecommunications services, limited options are available to place a local call from a public payphone. Consumers have two ways of placing local calls using a payphone. The consumer may use the traditional method of paying the telephone company payphone charge by inserting money into the payphone. Alternatively, the consumer may dial a toll free number and use their calling card to bill the local call to their home account.
The traditional method for making a local call using a public payphone is the consumer inserts the charge for the call into the payphone. When placing local calls from a payphone by inserting the charge for the call directly into the phone, the consumer must have the exact change, i.e., 35 cents, charged by the payphone provider for placing the call. If the consumer dials the wrong number, the consumer may not receive credit for the call. If the call is of short duration, the consumer pays a high charge for a local call (often more expensive than a long distance call).
Alternatively, the consumer may dial a toll free number and use their calling card to bill the local call to their home account. A calling card is a card with a number that allows residential customers to place a long distance call from a phone other than their home phone and bill the call to their home account by providing the calling card number. When placing local calls from a payphone by using a calling card, the consumer must dial a toll free number. Upon a prompt, such as a chime, the consumer enters their 14 digit calling card number. Upon a second prompt such as a double beep, the consumer dials their destination number. The call is processed and billed by the long distance provider. Surcharges for using the calling card apply.
The present invention is a method and system for establishing local payphone calls through a long distance provider network without using a toll free number. In order to initiate a local call through a long distance provider network, rather than dialing a toll free number to access the long distance carrier, the consumer enters a long distance provider primary intralata carrier (PIC) code followed by a number sequence. The call is routed to a long distance provider switch using the long distance provider PIC code.
The call is received by a long distance provider switch. The number sequence indicates that the call should be handled by a voice response unit (VRU). The long distance provider switch routes the call to the VRU which prompts the payphone customer to select a service from a menu. The customer selects local calling by entering the appropriate response into the keypad of the telephone. The VRU then prompts the customer for a destination number and a calling card number.
The long distance provider switch receives the destination number and calling card number. The calling card number is verified by querying a data access point (DAP). If the calling card number is valid, the call is terminated to the destination number.
The system comprises a payphone which is used to initiate the call and a destination phone which receives the call. Both the payphone and the destination phone are connected to a telephone company central office switch which provides switching functionality to telephones, private branch exchanges (PBXs), and to other switches. The telephone company central office switch is connected to a telephone company tandem switch which tandems the call to the long distance provider switch. The long distance provider switch is connected to the VRU to provide the consumer with a menu interface for selecting local calling and the DAP to respond to queries to verify the calling card number.